Taking Pictures via Your iPhone

Over the last couple of months I’ve been trying out new techniques for taking pictures from my iPhone.

I love the fancy camera I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, but the reality is it’s my iPhone that’s with me 24-7. So I thought why not learn a little more about the camera apps available and give them a little test drive. Here’s a little about my trials… I should mention, high on my picture-happy list are; my kids, food, the outdoors, pretty items and spaces.

At first I was only using my iPhone camera, which by the way is really good, and editing my photos via Photoshop Express. Sadly, I don’t remember if I’ve ever posted any photos on line using this method so needless to say, I don’t have any to share now.

Moving on. Instagram. Then I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon, and like many people I was instantly hooked. I loved how an otherwise, ordinary photo got a new take once a filter was applied. I dabbled with a handful of filters, my photos looked something like this… 

Prior to taking the picture, I thought about composition and all in all, I was happy with my photos. Then my marketing persona took over and I thought, perhaps my photos needed a little more cohesiveness and branding…

Moving on. Camera+ with Instagram. Then I started taking the photo and editing the photo in Camera+ prior to importing it into Instagram. Once I had the photo in Instagram, I applied the Hudson filter and viola, here’s what my photos looked like…

Do you like the cohesiveness by using the one filter idea? Hudson filter.

Moving on. Camera+ with no Instagram filter. This is the method I’m using today. I like the idea the idea of using one filter however, I wanted to try for better lighting and lighter edge. Here I take the photo and edit the photo in Camera+ and apply no filter once imported into Instagram. And, by editing the photo in Camera+, I mean… adjust the lighting, crop, apply a FX effect {aka a filter}and choose a boarder. For almost every picture I apply the depth of field filter which has no colour tint and apply a white boarder. Here’s what my photos look like…

How about cohesiveness with no filter and a white boarder?

Finally, although a little more time is required for editing, I really like Camera+. The added bonus to using this app is that the publishing isn’t immediate as with Instagram, although there’s a workaround for disabling publishing. Camera+ retains the photo in the ‘lightbox’ for continued editing and / or sharing if desired at a later date.

There you have it, my trials for taking pictures via your iPhone. Admittedly, today I spend far more time on composition and adjusting lighting versus trying different filters. I’m still working on capturing a better photo for my perfectionist side. You can see my full Instagram feed here, via Followgram.

How are you taking photos today? Do you have a tip to add, please share.